Acute HAV infected patient's distribution according to age and sex in Wasit Province-Iraq

الملخص EN

-Hepatitis A virus infection occurs globally and is causing a public health concern, primarily in developing countries due to its persistent circulation in the environment.

A total of 120 individuals were included in this study, anti-HAV IgM antibodies were detected in serum of 100 individuals of them (patients group) who attended the Wasit central public health laboratory from different cities in Wasit Province, Iraq, during the period from November 2013 to March 2014.While another 20 individuals were considered as control group which anti – HAV IgM antibody was negative in their serum.

Acute infection is confirmed by detection of IgM anti–hepatitis A virus (HAV), which appears early in the course of infection, anti-HAV IgM antibodies were significantly higher (P<0.001) in hepatitis A patients than control using a solid phase, two-step incubation, antibody capture ELISA kit .

Most of the HAV patients were located within the first decade (1-10 years) with a percentage of 91%, whereas 9 % of all patients were within second decade (10-20 years).

In this study, HAV infection is distributed equally among genders.

Therefore, there was no significant difference between females than male with a ratio of (1 female: 0.786 male) and percentage of 56% females than 44% males.

The aim of the study is to determine the distribution of acute HAV infection with age and sex of the infected patient in Wasit province/ Iraq.